1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lock system of a small article compartment in a vehicle in which a lock mechanism is actuated by an electric actuator to unlock an openable/closable portion of the small article compartment.
2. Related Art
Normally, a small article compartment for accommodating small articles is provided in a passenger compartment or cabin of a vehicle. In addition, in such small article compartments, there is one in which an openable/closable portion such as a lid for closing the accommodation space is provided and the openable/closable portion is made to be held in a locked state by means of a lock mechanism. In a conventional lock system for a small article compartment which has such an openable/closable portion, although a manual unlocking mechanism such as a push-type knob is provided for unlocking mechanically the openable/closable portion locked by the lock mechanism by a manual operation, with a view to reducing a laborious load associated with such an unlocking operation, there has been proposed a lock system in which an electric actuator and a switch for switching on and off the activation of the actuator are provided, so that the locking by a lock mechanism is released based on activation of the electric actuator in association with the switch being operated to switch on the actuator.
JP-A-6-146683 describes a lock system for a small article compartment in a vehicle which includes such an electric actuator in which a key cylinder is provided which can be operated to rotate by a specific key, so that the functions of the switch are switched between enablement and disablement through rotational operations of the key cylinder. In the event that the lock system described is adopted, by the key cylinder being operated to disable the switch from operating, the opening of the small article compartment by a person who has no key thereto can be made to be prohibited. Namely, the increase in security can be realized.
Incidentally, in the lock system for a small article compartment in a vehicle in which the locking of the openable/closable portion by the lock mechanism is released by the electric actuator, in the event that the electric actuator becomes unable to be activated due to contact failure of wiring, switch failure or troubled battery, the small article compartment cannot be opened.
Here, even in the event that the electric actuator cannot be activated, it is considered to adopt a configuration in which a mechanism for manually unlocking the small article compartment is provided further so as to forcibly open the small article compartment even in the event that the electric actuator cannot be activated. However, when such a mechanism is provided, since it becomes possible to open manually the small article compartment irrespective of the switch being enabled or disabled, it becomes difficult to ensure security.